Question

Read the quotation from chapter 5 of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. “Well, I'll learn her how to meddle. And looky here—you drop that school, you hear? I'll learn people to bring up a boy to put on airs over his own father and let on to be better'n what HE is.” What is Twain’s most likely intention for employing humor within this quotation?

Answer 1

Answer: to portray Huck’s father as uneducated and ignorant.

In this excerpt, Twain most likely uses humour to highlight the absurdity of the father's sentiment. This is done in order to portray Huck's father as uneducated and ignorant. The father tells Huck that he does not see the importance of school. Moreover, he thinks school is damaging because it will teach Huck to feel superior to his dad, who is unlikely to have attended school.

Answer 2

Huck’s father is a very unsympathetic character. He’s the town’s drunk, a drifter and a violent child-beater. Because Twain has always described him in a very naturalistic and sarcastic manner, this line of dialogue is not an exception. The author’s goal is to expose, to mock and thereby to denounce.

Furthermore, since Jim, the slave will be like father figure for Huck later in the book; his father will be a perfect foil for Jim’s character. Jim is a slave of the system of slavery and Huck’s father is the slave of his addition and his depravity.